House Intel Chair: Snowden Is Lying About Access To Surveillance Program

The chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said Thursday that the man who leaked information about National Security Agency surveillance programs is lying about his access to that information as well as the programs' scope.

"He was lying," Rep. Mike Rogers (R-MI) said after a closed briefing with NSA Director Keith Alexander, as quoted by The Hill. "He clearly has over-inflated his position, he has over-inflated his access and he's even over-inflated what the actually technology of the programs would allow one to do. It's impossible for him to do what he was saying he could do."

Leaker Edward Snowden claimed that while working for a security contractor, he had virtually unlimited access to the information the NSA's phone and internet data collection programs culled.

"The NSA has built an infrastructure that allows it to intercept almost everything," Snowden told The Guardian. "If I wanted to see your emails or your wife's phone, all I have to do is use intercepts. I can get your emails, passwords, phone records, credit cards."